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DS Lords
The Primordial Serpents Ancient Conspiracy: Both of them are involved in one, but neither seems to support the other's goal. Put simply, Kaathe is working to begin the Age of Dark, using the Darkwraiths to steal Humanity and snuff out the First Flame, with his efforts often turning humans into deranged beasts if New Londo and Oolacile are anything to go by, although that's likely unintentional. Frampt seeks to preserve the Age of Fire by having you replace Lord Gwyn, but it is later revealed that the "Chosen Undead" prophecy was fabricated to lure undead to Lordran so their humanity could be used to kindle the bonfires and keep the First Flame lit a while longer until one undead manages to replace Gwyn, resulting in said undead being used to fuel the First Flame with their humanity. This is later muddied further when, if the Dark Lord ending is chosen, Frampt will rejoin his brethren to crown you as the new Lord of the Age of Dark, implying that Frampt was going along with Kaathe's plan the whole time even while telling you how to keep the Age of Fire going. After being put on it for the entirety of Dark Souls II and its DLC, you can happen upon some statues in Lothric Castle in Dark Souls III that inexplicably have their faces. Also, if you kill Yuria, she name-drops Kaathe and implies that she serves him in some capacity, hinting that he and the rest of his ilk may still be around and kicking. The Painter girl in the Ashes of Ariandel DLC also inexplicably has the same eyes and skin tone (and even some scales) as the Primordial Serpents. However, the same game implies that Kaathe and likely the other Primordial Serpents are long dead. There really is no telling just what the hell they are. The serpents are barely mentioned at all in the Story Breadcrumbs of all three games, which only makes it seem as though they don't quite belong in the world. However, they are clearly ancient, very knowledgeable, and have been meddling in the affairs of humans and gods alike for a very long time to fulfill some obscure agenda. They are implied to be massive, but they lurk in the darkest corners of Lordran, only appearing to mortal eyes when they wish to be seen, and it's up in the air if they can even die or turn hollow like nearly everything else. Whatever the Primordial Serpents are, they clearly operate on different rules from everything else. Given how Frampt reacts to most things Seath-related should you try to feed him them, it's even possible Serpents are part and parcel of Our Dragons Are Different in some way: snakes are mentioned as being lesser dragons, too, in item descriptions... however much you trust those. Which puts an interesting spin on various events, if so. If there's one thing that they can both agree on, it's in their disdain for Seath. Kaathe is open about it, referring to him contemptuously as "the traitor." Frampt, however, is more subtle; while he describes Seath diplomatically as "Gwyn's former confidante," he makes his true opinion clear with how little the scaleless dragon's soul is worth to him. One interpretation that's very easy to run with when it comes to either Serpent you can run into. Lies, half-truths, evasions, and foggy reasons nobody finds much out about pretty much sum both Frampt and Kaathe up, at the very least. How villainous either of them (or any other Serpents that might be involved) are, or from which angle? Choose your own take. There are options. If the teeth didn't already set you off about them, then the orange bloodshot eyes, far too human nose, and what could accurately be described as flesh mustaches probably will. These things are not attractive in the slightest, and facially they barely even resemble serpents. Their voices are fine enough, just turned somewhat surreal coming out of those heads. Frampt initially seems like the latter trope, and stays this way unless you know about Kaathe, and then they become the former trope. Later gets subverted if you take the Dark Lord ending, which shows that there are many more Primoridal Serpents that live underneath Firelink Altar. Both Kaathe and Frampt to a certain degree, considering the former has facilitated the spread of the Abyss twice in the past, while the latter is one part of the forged "Chosen Undead" prophecy that, if followed to its conclusion, ends with you being used to fuel the First Flame until some other poor schmuck comes to take your place and perpetuate a cycle that will eventually end regardless. More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their giant broad teeth are easily their most defining feature, and even as they talk to you you can hear these chompers clacking away as they move their mouths. Kingseeker Frampt Chosen Undead, who has rung the Bell of Awakening, I wish to elucidate your fate. Do you seek such enlightenment? A primordial serpent and friend of Gwyn, who wishes to help the Undead Hero return the world to light. He is the only "merchant" in the game whom you can "sell" equipment to, and the only means of breaking down Titanite. He comes across as this, as he's ultimately guiding you on the path to undo the curse of Undeath and restore Fire to the world. Given how that basically means tricking the Chosen Undead to sacrifice themselves in, at best, a temporary fix for questionable reasons and after having done even more morally questionable deeds, you might revise your opinion. The other Primordial Serpents apparently view him as a traitor for siding with the gods and helping prolong the Age of Fire, but given that their preferred alternative may end up corrupting people into eldritch monstrosities, it's hard to hold it against him too much. He does rejoin his brethren if you go for the Dark Lord ending, though. Although it's up for interpretation if he isn't going to try to find another Gwyn to end your Age of Dark, as implied to have happened before. Kaathe implies that Frampt is the only primordial serpent to side with Gwyn and help him in prolonging the Age of Fire, although the alternate ending makes it ambiguous since he invariably shows up along with Kaathe and several other serpents to serve the Player Character, who becomes the Dark Lord. Says this is the case for the lords he sends you to kill, apart from the ones that have "fallen to wickedness." Darkstalker Kaathe A primordial serpent and leader of the Darkwraith Covenant. He resides in the Abyss, and, when confronted by the player character, wishes that the Undead Hero would end the Age of Fire and begin the Age of Dark. Sinister as he may be, Kaathe is still unflinchingly civil and polite to the player. He claims to be working for humanity's best interests and makes some good points about how the Age of Fire is already on its last legs but historically people who followed his advice were driven mad by the powers he encouraged them to wield. After the Primordial Serpents as a whole weren't mentioned at all in Dark Souls II, Kaathe gets name-dropped by Yuria in Dark Souls III if you kill her, implying that he (and perhaps the rest of his kin) are still alive and kicking. However, the Japanese reading of Yuria's line suggests that Kaathe is dead, which implies that Londor is his legacy rather than something he built himself, and is also surprising given that many players assumed the Primordial Serpents to be immortal. Because he is the leader of the Darkwraith covenant, and by extension the one who taught them and the Four Kings the Art of Lifedrain, he is implied to be the root of New Londo's downfall. In the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, we find out that Oolacile was destroyed because its inhabitants were conned into trying to harness the power of the Dark (however, the Humanity of the primeval human they unleashed ran wild) by 'a toothy serpent'. Sound familiar? Considering his opinion of the rogue Darkwraiths, he may really have meant well in both of these cases, but the people he groomed to usher in the Age of Dark failed to properly harness the power he taught them and went insane. This could well be the case, for Chester reveals that Oolacile was tricked into awakening Manus by "that toothy serpent", and there's only one serpent in this game who is in any way associated with the Abyss. Even then, he's still the leader of the Darkwraiths, a covenant dedicated to preserving its members' humanity through the art of Lifedrain, which corrupted the Four Kings and the knights under their command, though that likely wasn't Kaathe's intent. Even long after his apparent demise he casts a shadow in III. The Sable Church and the sinister kingdom of Hollows, Londor, was founded by three sisters who were loyal to him. Just like his fellow-serpent, Frampt. His grand stories of bringing about a new 'Age of Man' through the power of the Dark tend to result in anyone who listens to them ending up dead, insane, or dead and insane. Just ask the inhabitants of New Londo and Oolacile. If you think he's honest, then he's pretty much the only one who actually explains what's really going on. However, his explanations of the way the world really works tend to contain some troubling omissions and sound a little too good to be true. The Artorias of the Abyss DLC confirms that at best he's omitting the repeated disasters his methods have caused, and at worst they are his true aim. Subverted. He certainly appears a lot more forthright to the Chosen Undead than Frampt is. As the player learns more, however, it becomes clear that was only because he was exposing Frampt's deceptions and flowery language for what it really was. Kaathe himself makes similar grandiose promises of lordship and power while glossing over the unsavory aspects of his plan, like that people who try to wield the powers of the Dark tend to be twisted into horrifying monsters. Considers Gwyn this, acknowledging that him linking the fire was indeed a sacrifice, and always refers to him as "Lord Gwyn". Says this about the Darkwraith enemies found within the New Londo Ruins, having lost their way from the path to becoming the Dark Lord. Bearers of the Lord Souls The wielders of the Souls of Lords, who destroyed all the dragons, bringing an end to the Age of Ancients and starting the Age of Fire. Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight Leader of the Lords, King of Anor Londo, and father of the Gods of Light. He led the Age of Fire, ruling over man from Anor Londo in Lordran. His Lord Soul granted him power over Sunlight and Lightning. Most notably to Gwyndolin, who he decided to raise as a woman just because he was born with powers of the moon, which he considered to be feminine. He also treated the Nameless King, Filianore, and Yorshka like shit, erasing the former's name from history and exiling him from Anor Londo, and sending the latter to the Ringed City as their princess before sinking her into an eternal sleep to isolate the Ringed City from the world and restrain the Dark Soul's influence, and apparently didn't even name the last one! A mighty warrior king and father to at least 4 children. The Silver Knights adored him, and when Gywn witnesses Arkon apparently having slayed a dragon, he's beaming with pride, and rewards him handsomely. He has been burning in the Kiln for a really long time, meaning his defeat at the hands of the player can be seen as a Mercy Kill. In Dark Souls 3, he is revived inside the Soul of Cinder, a physical form of every soul who kept the First Flame lit. He's this regardless of interpretation. He treated humanity and his own children unjustly, and his actions had many consequences, but he successfully created the booming civilization of Anor Londo, a new era for life to prosper, and ultimately performed the most heroic act the setting can allow for - burning in fire for eternity to protect the rest of the world. A reasonably large mane of grey hair. Fans often joke about how it has not been reduced to ashes even after all the burning in the Kiln. Done with Kingseeker Frampt by fabricating the myth of the Chosen Undead, knowing that humans are Determinators and will do anything to solve the problem... thus it's just the matter of feeding them the desirable bits of facts so that the Chosen Undead will arrive at the solution he favors. He led the combined forces of his own army, Gravelord Nito, the Witches of Izalith, the Pygmies, and Seath the Scaleless against the Dragons in the war. He also put forward a successful plan to prevent the First Age of Fire from dying, which would usher an Age of Dark and fulfill the Furtive Pygmy's own plan. What he used against the ancient stone dragons to pierce their scales. While he doesn't use this in the boss fight against him, you can acquire up to three spells to use this yourself, the third version requiring Gwyn's Soul to obtain it. Somewhat. The Gwyn you meet in the game has only a small fraction of his godly power remaining, given he divided his soul and power among his subjects before he set off for the Kiln, becoming an Empty Shell in the process and losing what little sanity he had left. Even then, once the Player Character reaches him, he still gives one final fight with his unparalleled swordmanship and swift agility. Fittingly enough for a god of his status. You can purchase this, along with Gwyn's entire outfit, from Domhall of Zena once you meet the merchant in New Game+. Gywn's single greatest strength, and also his greatest flaw, is he will not let the flame die. Nothing can stop him from achieving his goals. Immortal Dragons ruling over the world? Form a massive, combined force with all the other lords, and destroy these supposedly immortal things. Fire fading? Throw himself to the flames, and burn in eternal agony. The person who's killed all the other lords comes to the Kiln? Blindly charge at them with a flaming sword, and throw yourself into a deathmatch you're unlikely to win. After thousands if not tens of thousands of years, the flame is threatened by an Unkindled? Manifest yourself and charge in to defend it one final time, stronger than ever. No matter what happens, Gywn will never back down. Sacrificed everything he had to link the flame and prolong the Age of Fire a while longer, an act which the opening narration plainly states could only be delaying the inevitable. And when the Soul of Cinder's power starts to wither, it calls upon his soul to fight. In the end, and for the same reason, Gwyn becomes the final opponent to both the Chosen Undead and the Ashen One. Potentially. Gywn's actions to prevent the fading of the First Flame saved the world as we know it, but the world wasn't exactly in great shape and has only gotten worse. Ultimately it's a matter of personal opinion whether it would have been better or worse to simply let everything end. People's lives are now full of oppressive misery and despair, but are they so bad it would have been better that they had never been born? While many characters like to spin Gwyn as a righteous god-king and architect for a world of light and beauty, various other characters (many of which who may or may not be trustworthy) claim that this is a case of Written by the Winners. Darkstalker Kaathe accuses him of being a liar and a schemer, the war he and the other gods declared on the Everlasting Dragons being an unprovoked declaration of supremacy. He allowed the pygmies into his armies, but because of their association with the dark, he did everything he could to keep the undying primordial humans out of the way, giving them the Ringed City to be their prison and branding them with a circle of fire, which turned what was supposed to be The Sacred Darkness into the Abyss, the Undead curse and everything else that turned his kingdom into a Crapsack World it the first place. Played with. While Gywn was certainly afraid of the darkness within humanity and the Pygmies, he did seem to have some respect for humanity, as he trusted their prominent leaders, the Four Kings, with parts of his own soul. According to Age of Fire, Gywn cared about the humans in his own kingdom, enough to always defend them from people who would harm them. Gywn had a fierce fear of the end coming to his kingdom and works. Much of Gywn's impact on the world was born of his desire to stave off the end as long as possible. In particular, his fear of the Dark as the harbinger of that end spurred a lot of his actions, for good or ill. Age of Fire reveals that he actually did care for his human subjects quite a bit sending his legions of Silver Knights to protect them from harm, even sending them to rescue people kidnapped by Seath. Enough that the Silver Knights actually grew discontent at Gywn helping humans at the expense of them. Ruled over all the nations of man from his seat in Anor Londo. There are hints of this in Dark Souls II, but The Ringed City implies the seal of fire he put on the Pygmies and their human descendants to hold back the Dark within them is the true cause of the Undead "Curse" plaguing the world whenever the First Flame begins to fade. It it also suggested that under the rule of the gods, humans grew to lose any control over the Abyss and the Dark they could have had, leading to them becoming such a danger in the present. Gravelord Nito The first of the dead, a literal mountain of corpses, and Leader of the Gravelord Servant Covenant. His Lord Soul granted him power over Death, and he functions as the Grim Reaper. After the great war against the dragons, he was content with laying dormant in his domain while death and misery spread over Lordran. Nito himself resides in a massive coffin deep within the Tomb of the Giants. Quite literally. Screaming can be heard with no clear source through many of Nito's movements and attacks, some more numerous than others, implying that some of the corpses that make him up may at least be partially self-aware. If they are, there's no doubt that they're in a great deal of pain. Or just very upset you woke them up. He is a mountain of corpses. Specifically, he's a giant skeleton wearing a mountain of skeletons as armor. Hell, the greatsword he uses and the replica swords he makes for his servants are also made of corpses! His powers have waned through the ages because of Pinwheel's Power Parasite. This may explain why the Chosen Undead is able to fight and defeat him in the game proper. He's flanked by several skeletons, all of which resurrect quickly unless you kill them with Divine-type weapons. If you take a few steps further into the boss area, a few giant skeletons will also assist Nito. Of a sort; the flavour texts repeatedly state that he's able to oversee from his tomb all matters of death, as well as members of his covenant.To the war against the dragons, Gwyn brought his army of knights and possibly even a few members of his own family. The Witch of Izalith brought all seven of her daughters, powerful fire witches like herself. The Furtive Pygmy also partook in the war with his brethren. Nito brought... himself, and his awesome powers of death and decay. In the long term, anyway. While in his intitial appearance in Dark Souls 1, he was just as powerful and noteworthy as the other bearers, he receives less and less attention in comparison to the others as the series progresses. It's to the point where come Dark Souls 3, Nito doesn't even receive a reference in any flavor text.* His covenant is dedicated to infecting unwitting Undeads' worlds with powerful monsters that only disappear when the Gravelord servant is defeated. This is also how he contributed to the war with the dragons, by "unleashing a miasma of death and disease". Which is made of corpses and spreads plague! By joining his covenant, you will receive one and, if done early in the game, it becomes a long-lasting Disk One Nuke. A god of death, he seemingly spawned from nowhere, having come into existence as the first undead shorty after the disparity between life and death came into existence. The Witch of Izalith The mother of the Daughters of Chaos and one of the greatest wielders of the Old Fire Arts. Her Lord Soul granted her power over Flame and Chaos. It's implied that there are still traces of her consciousness within the Bed of Chaos, since Quelana asks you to Mercy Kill her. When the First Flame started to wane and give rise to the Age of Dark, she attempted to use her power to recreate the First Flame with a soul, possibly on Gwyn's order. She succeeded at first, but lost control, which resulted in the Flame of Chaos completely taking her over — or whatever it did to her and her city. The resulting abomination became known as the Bed of Chaos: a font of life that became the source of all demons in Lordran. This event also spawned pyromancy, replacing the old fire arts. She and her daughters weaved storms of fire in the war against the dragons, and she even created a unique form of pyromancy that has since been lost to history. The Bed of Chaos itself casts some very powerful fire spells as well. The only female bearer of a Lord Soul; it might be Two Girls to a Team, since the Pygmy's gender is ambiguous. What is seen of her in the prologue cutscene; she's much taller than her daughters, who are more human-sized. Unlike Gwyn and Nito, you don't seem to meet her in the game, even though Frampt and Kaathe explicitly include her in your new quest to gather Lord Souls as to satiate the Lordvessel. This is because she has become the present-day Bed of Chaos. The Furtive Pygmy An unknown Lord, both figuratively and literally. Unlike the three other Lords, he doesn't seem to have participated in the war against the dragons, and is ultimately relegated to the background, "so easily forgotten". In The Ringed City, you travel to the homeland of the Pygmies and find out that they did contribute to the war effort, but were Unpersoned by the Gods because of their fear of the Abyss. The Furtive Pygmy is not referred to with a gendered pronoun, being referred to by name in the opening and as "your ancestor/progenitor" by Kaathe. The opening silhouette seems vaguely male, but also somewhat inhuman. As the individual who all humans come from, it's possible the Furtive Pygmy predates humans having sexes. The Ringed City makes it known that there were many Pygmies, meaning it wasn't the sole parent and even shared its Dark Soul with the rest. Despite being so easily forgotten in comparison to the other Lords, he is responsible for creating humanity and his efforts to give rise to an Age of Dark were effective enough to bring the other Lords to their knees and threaten the Age of Fire. You can argue that some of his efforts finally come to fruition in Dark Souls III, when the First Flame finally begins to flicker out... yet, with so little known about him, it's debatable whether he ever had a plan at all. According to Kaathe, the Pygmy waited out the war against the Dragons and even the Age of Fire in order to give rise to the Age of Man/Dark. But the Pygmy's mission was lost to man due to Gwyn's efforts in preserving the dying Age of Fire. Despite this setback, his plans are possibly carried out by his descendants, i.e., the human race, all of which received pieces of his Lord Soul. The Ringed City shows that the Pygmy lords, implicitly his direct descendants, truly respected the Gods, but were sealed away in the Ringed City due to their Dark souls. It's unclear whether Kaathe was simply lying, or if the Pygmy's desire to bring down the gods and elevate humanity was inspired by this betrayal. He is the fourth and final Lord Soul bearer mentioned in the prologue, and despite being forgotten compared to the three others, is said to have made a long and elaborate plan in which he scattered his soul and gave a fragment to all his descendants, who would become the humans of the Dark Souls universe. Throughout the main game and the Downloadable Content, you get to witness the fruits of said plan, in which the influx of humanities, being closely related to the darkness of the Abyss, starts corrupting several locales and spawns unrecognizable abominations, the greatest of which is Manus, Father of the Abyss. However... things may not be that clear. Because that picture depends on how trustworthy you take Kaathe to be. He was said to be most likely too physically weak to truly help the other Lords fight the war against the dragons, yet was also said to have proved to be the most clever of the Lords; by splitting his Lord Soul, the Dark Soul itself, and granting the shards to his descendants, whom would eventually became the human race... they are set to rule in an Age of Dark after the Age of Fire finally ends. It's also possible that he's actually Manus, Father of the Abyss; if so, then he began as a pathetic nobody and ended as the most nightmarish being Lordran has ever seen, playing this trope twice over. However, buyer beware. Propaganda from a lot of sides means all of this is almost certainly lies. Is mentioned once by name in the opening narration, and what scarce few information is left is provided from an NPC that will only appear under very specific circumstances. He never appears in-game proper unless he was warped into Manus, Father of the Abyss. The reason he is called the Furtive Pygmy is possibly because of his frail stature compared to the other bearers of the Lord Souls. It also makes sense considering he is the progenitor of the human race, and the average human is small when compared to lesser deities such as Ornstein and Artorias. Unlike the other lords, he was said not to have taken part in the war against the dragons. Given his only appearance in the prologue makes him look rather frail, he probably just wasn't fit to fight the dragons. Then The Ringed City reveals that the pygmies did help in the war against the dragons, though whether the Furtive Pygmy himself played any significant role is unclear. The Furtive Pygmy waited out a whole war and the First Age of Fire to give rise to an age where humans ruled. While Gwyn took measures to prevent this, he was only delaying the inevitable, although whether this happens in the present is still up to the player. The Ringed City throws a massive hole into the story: the Pygmies never had any plan to try and overthrow the Gods, they respected them. Though the Pygmies harnessed Dark and Fire in equal measure rather than obsessing over one. According to Kaathe, the Pygmy's Lord Soul was the Dark Soul, going as far as to say it was unique, even compared to the other three Lord Souls. Aside from the opening cinematic and some oblique references made by Kaathe, we know next to nothing about the Furtive Pygmy, and this isn't for no reason. Gwyn had a very nasty habit of striking things he didn't like from the annals of history, and the Pygmies were one such thing; Dark Souls III reveals in The Ringed City DLC that the Pygmies and their armies did aid Gwyn in his war against the dragons, wielding weapons and armor forged in the Abyss to great effect. However, Gwyn feared the Dark and their Dark Souls, so he sealed them away in time in the titular city while placing a seal of fire on all bearers of the Dark Soul and Humanity that would later turn into the Darksign. Thus, the Furtive Pygmy "so easily forgotten" was really forcibly erased from history to support Gwyn's political narrative. Seath the Scaleless A primordial dragon who betrayed his brethren because he was born without scales. Lord Gwyn presented Seath a Dukedom and the archives of Anor Londo. He holds the title "Grandfather of Sorcery". Gwyn gave Seath a fragment of his Lord Soul before attempting to stave off the end of the Age of Fire. Seath drove himself insane and blind while researching the Scales of Immortality he was born without. The nature of Seath's insanity isn't elaborated upon. Despite becoming an undead, he's never described as having gone hollow, and he seemingly possesses a degree of lucidity considering he's clever enough to trap the player with a Bonfire after killing them. On the other hand, simply reading his notes is enough to drive somebody off the deep end, something Big Hat Logan and King Oceiros learn the hard way. Dark Souls II somewhat clarifies it - Sweet Shalquoir states that his madness manifested as a desperate obsession with the scales he sought, and he is at least sane enough to remember that he hates dragons, something that the giant dragon corpse in Brightstone Cove Tseldora can attest to. In the intro. A mountain made up of his own kind, no less. In his desperate search to become immortal, he vehemently researched the Everlasting Dragons' scales after helping the Lords win the war. He obtains his wish due to the powers of the Primordial Crystal, but by then he's become too insane to really embrace his newfound immortality. Scared and envious of that which he cannot truly understand, he strikes out at everything he fears and goes to great lengths to deny reality? Gosh — no wonder he and Gwyn got along so well. Says something that those who loved one couldn't stand the other, when they were so much alike. Seath doesn't just envy other dragons, he despises them. He personally massacres more than a few of his kin, and in Dark Souls II it's implied he butchered the dragon living in Brightstone Cove Tseldora after taking possession of the Duke's pet spider. Doubles as a Berserk Button. Has three tails that function as these. You can cut the tip of the middle tail in order to obtain the powerful Moonlight Greatsword, which is ideal for most magic-oriented builds. Unlike the other Archdragons — who had stone scales and four wings — Seath the Scaleless has no eyes, pale slimy-looking skin, tentacles instead of legs, eight flexible dragonfly-like wings, and rather than breathing fire he fires beams of energy that create cursed crystals. Obsessed with immortality, Seath obtained a piece of Gwyn's Lord Soul and a mystical crystal that made him into a unique undead. Even after death, his soul persisted to the time of Dark Souls II, with Sweet Shalquoir indicating that he was reincarnated as the arachnid Animalistic Abomination Freja (which his soul is obtained from) and Manscorpion Tark commenting that his master cannot truly be killed and will simply be reborn so he can "seethe" for all eternity. By the time of Dark Souls III a secret cult worshipping Seath had formed in Lothric's Grand Archives, with King Oceiros going so far as to mutate into a Draconic Humanoid strongly resembling the Old Paledrake himself. Seath was by far the most controversial figure under Gwyn's lordship. While the the Lord of Sunlight rewarded him generously with his own dukedom, archive, and even a fragment of his soul, the Scaleless was hated by many other close confidantes of Gwyn, including Havel and Frampt. He's the most active, prevalent, and dangerous of the Lord Soul bearers, as his experiments are loose all across Lordran. The sidequests of Rhea and Logan end in some way because of him, and he is the only boss who is fought twice. Nor does dying stop him from causing problems; his spirit shows up in Dark Souls II in the form of the Duke's Dear Freja, and Manscorpion Tark and Scorpioness Najka are the results of his experiments, and in Dark Souls III Oceiros is turned into a blind part-dragon monster by digging into Seath's work. According to the Darkmoon Knightess, Big Hat Logan, and Sweet Shalquoir, Seath drove himself insane in his search for the Scales of Immortality he was born without. He ironically became immortal due to the primordial crystal he took when he defected from his brethren, and the sequel implies he's been able to reincarnate himself into different beings ever since, with the latest form being the Duke's Dear Freja. The Four Kings Rulers of former New Londo whom Gwyn granted their positions and a piece of his Lord's Soul for their counsel. However, they fell prey to the beasts of the Abyss that appeared under New Londo, and the knights of the city were corrupted into Darkwraiths. This event led to the whole of New Londo being flooded and magically sealed. They now reside within the Abyss itself: a pitch black void in which nothing can survive, save those who have made a covenant with the beasts that dwell within it. Their use of lifedrain made them corrupted and violent, to the point where New Londo had to be flooded with everyone still inside to contain them. A sterling example of what the powers of Dark can do to a person. This even extends to the point where their arena is nothing but a featureless black void. Everything in the game treats them as pretty much the same character, from their lore to their boss battle. It's implied that prolonged use of Life Drain corrupted their form even further than the mindless Darkwraiths that wander the New Londo Ruins. Were once noble and just rulers, enough for Gwyn to entrust shards of his Lord Soul before he departed for the Kiln of the First Flame. Then Kaathe appeared and tempted them with the Art of Lifedrain. According to the Dark Souls lore, there are only four kings of New Londo and they can all spawn during the fight against them if you drag it out for too long. If all four are killed and there is still life left in the overall boss health bar, more kings can spawn. Possibly intentional from a programming standpoint, but almost impossible inside the lore. The only way it can be Hand Waved in-universe is the convoluted to hell flow of time allowing the slain kings to fade back into existence. That, or the Kings are such Eldritch Abominations that they can pull a Doppelgänger Attack.